Joseph Carey Merrick was born in Leicester, England in 1862. He began growing disfiguring tumors before the age of two and his condition rapidly worsened, rendering one of his arms completely useless. Nevertheless, he was described as a wonderfully imaginative and intelligent boy. When Joseph was 11, his mother, Mary Jane, who was also physically handicapped, died, and Joseph's father remarried. Joseph's stepmother was not nearly as compassionate as his mother, and she even gave Joseph's father an ultimatum: "Joseph, or me." The young Joseph was cast out of the home and went to live at the Leicester Union Workhouse, and sold shoe polish on the street. However, he was constantly taunted by crowds of cruel children and soon moved on to another line of work.

Joseph's attempt to find traditional work were unsuccessful. Sick with bronchitis, and requiring surgery due to the intrusion of tumors into his throat, Joseph would very likely have died on the streets of Leicester, if it weren't for a compassionate showman named Tom Norman. Norman was the UK's answer to P.T. Barnum, and in fact received his nickname, "The Silver King", from the legendary American impresario because of the flashy silver jewelry he wore. Finding himself out of options and desperate for medical care, Merrick pitched himself to Sam Torr, another showman, who in turn introduced him to Norman. Norman paid for the operations Merrick required and helped Merrick become a successful museum freak. Under Norman's tutelage, Merrick accumulated 200 pounds, a large sum of money at the time. However, while touring Belgium, Merrick became separated from his guardian. Naive and sickly, he was a perfect target for robbers, and an unscrupulous Austrian (some say Italian) showman tricked him out of his small fortune.

Returning home from Belgium, Merrick was discovered in the Liverpool train station by Dr. Frederick Treves, who had previously seen Merrick on display in a medical school. Merrick was suffering from bronchitis and malnutrition, and Treves brought him back to the Whitechapel Hospital. The hospital became Merrick's permanent home; in his room he wrote poetry and prose and built models from card stock, his most famous being of the St. Philip's cathedral in Birmingham, which Merrick had never seen but constructed from studying architectural drawings. While living in the hospital, however, Merrick became a freak of a different sort. Treves exhibited him before classes of medical students, where he stood naked before leering crowds and was subjected to humiliating examinations. It became fashionable among members of London's upper class to visit the Elephant Man and mask their disgust as the conversed with the intelligent and well-spoken man. His visitors brought him all sorts of gifts, including a beautiful shaving set, which of course Merrick could not use because of the condition of his skin. He even struck up a pen-pal relationship with a famous actress of the day, who promised she would come see him, although she never did.

As Merrick became more comfortable with other people, he was taken on outings and even went to the theater. He shook hands with people and spoke to strangers, even women, with ease. Unfortunately, his newfound sense of self-respect came too late, and he died in his sleep in April 11, 1890. Rumors spread that the Elephant Man had been murdered, but Dr. Treves dispelled these, revealing the true cause of Merrick's death to be asphyxiation. He had attempted to sleep lying down, like a "normal person", and the weight of the tumors on his head and neck had crushed his trachea.

2. Juan Baptista dos Santos - The Man With Two Penises

Jean (or Juan) Baptista dos Santos is said to have been a “Gipsey”, born in Faro, Portugal around 1843, to normal parents with two other normal children. His career as an exhibitionist seems to have been confined strictly to medical circles; in 1865 turned down a sum of 200,000 francs to appear for two years with a French circus. He possessed two functioning penes and three scrota, the outer two of which each contained a single testis. Dos Santos claimed that the central scrotum had also contained a pair of fully-formed testes, but that these had retreated into his abdomen when he was ten years old.

Josephine Myrtle Corbin was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1868. She was born a dipygus, meaning that she had two separate pelvises side by side from the waist down. The extra legs were part of a twin that did not split correctly, like Frank Lentini with his third leg. Each of her smaller inner legs was paired with one of her outer legs. She was said to be able to move her inner legs, but they were too weak for walking. She had four daughters and a son.
4. Mademoiselle Gabrielle - The Half Lady

Born in Basle, Switzerland, in 1884, Gabrielle Fuller first joined the circus at the Paris Exposition in 1900. She travelled with the Ringling Brothers Circus and appeared at Coney Island’s Dreamland sideshow. She was married at least twice, once to a man named John de Fuller. She had a perfectly formed upper body which ended smoothly just below the waist.

5. Mary Ann Bevan - The Ugliest Woman

Mary Ann Webster was born in London, England in 1874, one of eight children. As a young woman she worked as a nurse and in 1903 married a greengrocer named Thomas Bevan. Shortly after getting married, Mary Ann began exhibiting symptoms of acromegaly, a form progressive giantism that causes abnormal growth and distortion of the facial features, as well as headaches, failing eyesight and joint and muscle pain. The Bevans had four children before Thomas’ death in 1914.
6. Martin Laurello - The Human Owl

The man who we have come to know as Martin Laurello was born Martin Emmerling in Nuremburg, Germany around 1886. He began to perform his act in Europe when in his 20’s and brought it over to America in 1921. He appeared several times at Coney Island and worked also for Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey’s sideshow. He also worked for Dick Best’s Royal American Shows and as late as 1945 was appearing with Ripley’s shows along with “Popeye Perry” and “Junior Stiles”, 7-year old Lobster Boy.

7. Mme. Clofullia - The Bearded Lady of Geneva

Madame Clofullia was born Josephine Boisdechene in Switzerland. She was born hairy and reputedly had a two-inch beard at the age of eight. At the age of fourteen she began to tour Europe, first accompanied by her father and an agent and then with her father alone. In Paris she met painter Fortune Clofullia and eventually married him. She also gained extra fame when she fashioned her beard in the imitation of that of Napoleon III. In return, the ruler gave her a large diamond.
8. Wang - The Human Unicorn

In 1930, a Chinese farmer from Manchukuo was discovered by an expat Russian banker. The Russian was able to take a picture of the man and he sent the snapshot off to Robert Ripley of ‘Believe It Or Not!’ fame. Known only as Wang, or sometimes referred to as Weng, the farmer was normal in every respect except fot the fact that he possessed a fourteen-inch spire-like horn growing from the back of his head. Ripley offered a huge cash reward to anyone who could produce Wang for an appearance in his Odditorium. However Wang disappeared from the public eye in the early 1930’s and was never heard from again.

9. Lionel - The Lion Faced Boy

Stephan Bibrowsky was born in Poland in 1890 to normal parents. He suffered from hypertrichosis, a rare genetic disease that covers the entire bodies of the subjects with a thick coat of fur. Only about 50 cases of the disorder have been documented since the Middle Ages. In the case of Lionel, six-inch-long hair covered his body. He was discovered by a German man named Meyer when he was four years old and became famous throughout Europe where he gained the nickname of Lionel the Lion-Faced Man. Far from being exhibited as a beast, he wore often the best clothes to show that under his hairs he was a literate and enjoyable person that spoke five languages.

10. Ella Harper - The Camel Girl

This is the text from Ella Harper’s pitch card. A pitch card was an advertising flyer for attractions at a sideshow.

“I am called the camel girl because my knees turn backward. I can walk best on my hands and feet as you see me in the picture. I have traveled considerbly in the show business for the past four years and now, this is 1886 and I intend to quit the show business and go to school and fit myself for another occupation.”

I have actually seen a living case of this in Verona, Italy. A woman was kneeling on the road begging but her legs were bent in front of her at the knee rather than behind.

Robert Owen 'Bob' Melvin, the Man with Two Faces, was born Schuyler County, Missouri, on May 9, 1920, one of six children of Fred and Hazel Melvin. Throughout his life he was examined by doctors, but all were unable to find a diagnosis for his deformity; Bob said it was simply "god's sense of humor". In his later years, however, he was found to have neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes the spontaneous growth of fibrous tumors. Manifestations of NF differ greatly from patient to patient; some simply have brown birthmarks called cafe-au-lait spots, while others are greatly deformed. As a child, he was barred from attending school because of the way he looked; however, he did manage to obtain an education. He excelled at math and often helped with the bookkeeping for the sideshows.

Bob first entered showbusiness in 1949 at Coney Island. From there, he played at "every state fair west of the Mississippi". When he married his longtime girlfriend Virginia in 1952, observers were heard to mutter that the match-up wouldn't last a year, but in fact it lasted more than forty. Professionally, Bob Melvin was known as The Man with Two Faces or the Modern Elephant Man, a nod to Joseph Merrick, who was believed (incorrectly) to suffer from NF also. He worked for Royal American Shows and Whitey Sutton and helped handle the bookkeeping for the sideshow. He also enjoyed a minor film career, appearing as a sanitorium inmate in Sisters (1973) and as a denizen of the underworld in The Sentinel (1977). In addition, Bob appeared in the documentaries Being Different (1981) and I Am Not a Freak (1987). Bob was a friendly, church-going man, beloved by all who knew him in the freak show and in his hometown of Lancaster. He and his wife Virginia had a daughter, who later gave the Melvins a grandson and granddaughter. Bob passed away in his hometown of Lancaster, Missouri, on November 19, 1995.

Manuel Uribe Garza (born June 11, 1965) is a man from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, and was one of the heaviest people in medical history.[1] After reaching a peak weight of around 597 kg (1,316 lb) and being unable to leave his bed since 2001, Uribe lost considerable weight with the help of doctors and nutritionists, and by following the Zone diet.

Uribe drew worldwide attention when he appeared on the Televisa television network in January 2006, but turned down offers for gastric surgery in Italy.

In March 2007, Uribe set a goal to lower his weight to 120 kg (265 lb). Uribe has also been featured on "World's Heaviest Man", a television documentary about his bedridden life and attempts to lose weight.[2]

By October 26, 2008, Uribe had reduced his weight to 360 kg (800 lb).[3] His weight loss efforts continue.

Pianists, typists and tailors might all look on green with envy at Haramb Ashok Kumthekar, of Goa in India, who has six digits on each hand and seven digits on each feet.

But for Heramb, 22, it means he cannot even wear a pair of simple flip-flops, nor can he find a pair of gloves that fit his hands in the winter.

…Heramb, who is currently studying for a Masters in Business Management at his college in the western Indian town of Pune, has always seen his extra digits as something to be proud of.

“I am happy about it because I have something that others don’t have,” says Heramb.

And showing a full understanding of that old maxim ‘Use what you’ve got’ , Heramb goes on to say, “I never had a problem with it and after I get publicity I will be famous because of it.”

Heramb’s extra digits are caused by the medical condition polydactlyism, which translates from the Greek for “many fingers”.

The congenital condition occurs in one in every 500 births and famous holders of extra digits include the beheaded ex-wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, who was rumoured to have an extra finger on her left hand.

French doctors are amazed that a 44-year-old civil servant with an abnormally small brain has led a normal life with a slightly lower than normal IQ, according to a report on Physorg.com.

Doctors said the father of two went to the Hopital de la Timone in Marseille with mild weakness in his left leg. He was given a CT scan and an MRI, which showed that his cerebral cavities or ventricles had massively expanded, according a case history to be published in Saturday's Lancet.

"The brain itself, meaning the grey matter and white matter, was completely crushed against the sides of the skull," Dr. Lionel Feuillet told AFP. "The images were most unusual... the brain was virtually absent."

Doctors believe this man's condition could stem from surgery he had at the age of 6 months, when he suffered hydrocephalus or water on the brain and needed an operation to drain a buildup of spinal fluid.

Subsequent tests have revealed that the man has an IQ of 75, with a verbal IQ of 84 and performance IQ of 70. The bulk of people in society have a minimum IQ of 85.

Kim Goodman is a woman who is able to pop her eyes out of her eye sockets by 12 millimeters (0.47 inches). She holds the world record for the farthest eyeball protrusion. She lives in Chicago, Illinois. She discovered her eyeball popping talent one day when she was hit on the head with a hockey mask. Her eyeballs popped out much further than usual and ever since that day she could pop them out on cue, as well as when she yawns.

The tallest man in medical history for whom there is irrefutable evidence is Robert Pershing Wadlow. He was born at Alton, Illinois, USA, on February 22, 1918, and when he was last measured on June 27, 1940, was found to be 2.72 m (8 ft 11.1 in) tall.

Wadlow died at 1:30 a.m. on July 15, 1940, in a hotel in Manistee, Michigan, as a result of a septic blister on his right ankle caused by a brace, which had been poorly fitted only a week earlier. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Alton, in a coffin measuring 3.28 m (10 ft 9 in) long, 81 cm (32 in) wide and 76 cm (30 in) deep.

Wadlow's greatest recorded weight was 222.71 kg (35 st 1 lb) on his 21st birthday and he weighed 199 kg (31 st 5 lb) at the time of his death. His shoe size was 37AA (47 cm, 18½ in long) and his hands measured 32.4 cm (12¾ in) from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. He wore a size 25 ring. His arm span was 2.88 m (9 ft 5¾ in) and his peak daily food consumption was 8000 calories.

At the age of nine, he was able to carry his father Harold F. Wadlow, later Mayor of Alton, who stood 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) and weighed 77 kg (170 lb), up the stairs of the family home.

Pasqual Pinon, was known as The Two-Headed Mexican and he was a featured attraction with the Sells-Floto Circus in the early 1900s.

The story went that Pinon had fled Mexico after loosing his family ranch to Pancho Villa. Due to his unique deformity he was able to display himself for a substantial amount of money and support his family of seven. The secondary head was immobile – its mouth constantly agape and its eyes blank and expressionless. The lack of movement was attributed to being paralyzed after Pinon suffered a stroke at the age of 20. Pinon was not an entertainer and the bulk of his performance consisted of simply sitting and occasionally lifting his chin into the air to better display the tuberous connection between his natural head and his tiny secondary.

The entire story of his origin was, of course, false. While it is quite possible to have two complete heads, a condition known as craniopagus parasiticus, a true parasitic head is always situated upside-down on top of the main head - as is the case with The Two-Headed Boy of Bengal. The second head of Pinon was a gaff – a fake.

The true story of Pasqual Pinon is actually more interesting in its strangeness. Pinon was actually a railroad worker from Texas who had a large benign tumor growing from the top of his head. He was discovered by a sideshow promoter in 1917 while splitting rails. For some reason the promoter decided that the huge tumor protruding for the head or Pinon was not odd enough and decided to create a fake face – a mask of wax. That mask was placed over the growth and The Two-Headed Mexican was born. There have been some rumors that the mask was made of silver and was actually surgically implanted under the skin of the tumor – however, that is highly unlikely. Further rumors claim that this silver plate caused Pinon to go insane. Again, this is most likely nothing more than a promoter’s embellishment.

What is factual is that after several years of popular touring, the Sells-Floto Circus manager paid to have the cyst removed and Pinon returned to Texas. What happened to Pinon after that is unknown. It is assumed that he either retired or returned to his life as a laborer - with a little less on his mind.

The Two-Headed Boy Of Bengal

In 1790 the astute surgeon Everard Home wrote of ‘a species of lusus naturae so unaccountable, that, I believe, no similar instance is to be found upon record’. He was writing of the Boy of Bengal after observing drawings and collecting and reviewing the accounts of several of his peers. While the boy was remarkable for both his medical condition and perseverance, Home was actually incorrect in his initial assumptions.

The Two-Headed Boy of Bengal was born in the village of Mundul Gait in Bengal in May of 1783 into a poor farming family. His remarkable life was very nearly extinguished immediately after his delivery as a terrified midwife tried to destroy the infant by throwing him into a fire. Miraculously, while he was rather badly burned about the eye, ear and upper head, he managed to survive. His parents began to exhibit him in Calcutta, where he attracted a great deal of attention and earned the family a fair amount of money. While the large crowds gathered to see the Two-Headed Boy his parents took to covering the lad with a sheet and often kept him hidden – sometimes for hours at a time and often in darkness. As his fame spread across India, so did the caliber of his observers. Several noblemen, civil servants and city officials arranged to showcase the boy in their own homes for both private gatherings and grand galas – treating their guests to up close examinations. One of these observers was a Colonel Pierce who described the encounter to the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks and it was Sir Banks who later forwarded the account to the surgeon Everard Home.

The term ‘Two-Headed’ may be a bit misleading as rather that two heads side by side, the Boy actually had head atop the other. When compared to the average child, both heads were of an appropriate size and development. The second head sat atop the main head inverted and simply ended in a neck-like stump. The second head seemed to, at times, function independently from the main head. When the boy cried or smiled the features of the second head did not always match. Yet, when the main head was fed, the second head would produce saliva. Furthermore, if the second head was presented with a breast to suckle – it would attemp to do so. While the main head was well formed the secondary head did posses some irregularities. The eyes and ears were underdeveloped. The tongue was small and the jaw malformed but both were capable of motion. When the Boy slept, the secondary head would often be observed alert and awake – eyes darting about.

Despite the attention the Boy of Bengal received, none of it was medical in nature. There were no intensive first hand medical examinations of the Boy on record and the vast majority of the press attention given to the Boy focused no on his condition, but rather his ‘freakish’ appearance. The Boy, who seemed to suffer no serious ill effects in relation to his condition, died at the age of four from a cobra bite. It was only then, after much unseemly business, that medicine was able to examine the case.

The Boy was buried near the Boopnorain River, outside the city of Tumloch but the grave was soon robbed by Mr. Dent, a salt agent for the East India Company. He dissected the putrefied body himself and gave the skull to a Captain Buchanan of the East Indian Company. Buchanan brought the skull to England, where it ended up in the hands of his close friend- Everard Home.

When Mr. Dent had dissected the heads he discovered that the brains were separate and distinct. Each brain was also enveloped in its proper coverings and it appeared as though both brains received the nutrition required to sustain life and thought. The skull of the Boy of Bengal can still be seen at the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of London.

The classification of this condition is today known as Craniopagus parasiticus and technically falls under the category of parasitic twins however many of the early naturalists have attempted to classify the Bengal case as a case of conjoined twins due to the signs of independent life given by the secondary head.

Previous to 1783 teratology texts listed no fewer that eight suspected cases of Craniopagus parasiticus however the Boy of Bengal case is not only the earliest well documented account, but also the first account of such a case surviving past infancy. Recently on December 10, 2003, Rebeca Martínez was born in the Dominican Republic with this rare condition and she was also the first baby born with the condition to undergo a surgical removal of the second head. She died on February 7, 2004, after the 11-hour operation. On February 19, 2005, Manar Maged – also born with the same condition- underwent a successful 13-hour surgery in Egypt, but died on March 25, 2006 due to repeated infection.

Medically speaking, they were conjoined twins joined at the buttocks. The bones of their lower spine were joined and they shared a common blood and nervous system. They would share sensations but usually behave as separate individuals.

They were born to a barmaid, Kate Skinner, in the English town of Brighton on February 5, 1908. Their poor mother had to sold them to Mary Hilton, a midwife, when they were two weeks old. "Auntie” saw early the potential of the sisters to make money. They learned to read, write, sing, dance and play music by joining early the circus life. Auntie hoarded all of the girls earnings and kept any and all money away from the girls never allowing them to associate with others. Upon Auntie's death, the girls were willed to Edith, Auntie's daughter, and their slavery continued.

At age 17, the girls were headlining large vaudeville productions. Their performances would consist of musical performances and dancing. The audience was rarely interested in the twins musical talent, but rather by the fact that it was a pair of siamese twins performing.

Involved in a divorce suit, they were noticed by a lawyer, Martin J. Arnold, who help them to sue their former guardians for their money and freedom.

They went on to become movie stars in Tod Browning's film, Freaks , and starred in another film named Chained for Life . At the peak of their career, they were said to be earning $5000 a week.

But little is known about their later lives when they retired from show business. In January, 1969, the girls were employed at a North Carolina supermarket. When they failed to report for work for three days, the police was called and found the sisters in their apartment, dead from complications of the flu.

The Padaung are a sub-group of Karen (Bwe Group) living in Kayah state of eastern Burma on the Thailand border. They number less than 40,000 people in total. The Padaung call themselves "Lae Kur" or "Kayan". They have their own language which belongs to the Kenmic group in the Tibeto-Burman language family.

The Karen themseves are not one homogeneous group but rather a loose confederation of heterogeneous and closely related tribes. Among the smallest of the Karen tribes in Thailand are the Karen Padaung.

In Thailand, only a few families of Padaung have settled temporarily as refugees in Muang District of Mae Hong Son Province, near Ban Tha Ton in Chiang Rai Province, and as of June 2005 a small group near Chiang Dao. Generally they live among other hilltribes groups, mostly Karen.

The Padaung escaped from the Kaya State in Burma to Thailand in the mid to late 1900's and are actually refugees of a political turmoil. They belong to the Karenni sub-group of the Karen People, which are still fighting for their independence in Burma.

The Karen-Padaung occupied central Burma before the Burmese arrived from the North and they, together with the ancient Mon, farmed the Irrawaddy and Salween Valleys and built civilizations based on their unique cultures.

The Padaung women famously wear brass rings around their necks. This distorts the growth of their collarbones and make them look as if they have long necks - which they don't. This row of brass rings do not actually stretch their necks but in fact squash the vertebrae and collar bones. A woman generally has about twenty or more rings around her neck. This neck ring adornment is started when the girls are 5 or 6 years old.

The rings on the arms and the legs are not quite as prominent as those on the neck simply because the neck rings are so pronounced. However, these rings are just as important. The rings on the arms are worn on the forearm from the wrist to the elbow. Those on the legs are worn from the ankles to the knees, and cloth coverings are kept over most of these rings, from the shins down to the ankles.

Most of Padaung are animists, but about 10 percent are Buddhists. Now, the number of Christians is increasing because of the Roman Catholic mission. The annual festival for the fertility and prosperity of the whole community is usually held at the beginning of the rainy season. Sacrifices are made to the spirits for good health and bountiful harvests. Rice is the Padaung main crop.

At the age of 22, an age full of colorful life for most people, Min Xiao has to endure ridicule and pain with this disease. She never imagined she could have this bitter a life. 17 years ago, she had a strange disease that caused her to be afflicted with a half face appearance. She is always living in fear and pain as people tease because of her unusual appearance.